Walls of Jericho

From the Motor City of Detroit comes the most savage sound in modern music. Few bands possess as much metallic venom in their guitars while retaining the grit and concrete fury of hardcore/punk in their sounds as Walls Of Jericho. The music is propelled by the inhuman roar of Candace Kucsulain, whom regardless of her gender is one of the most energetic front-people in heavy music to grab a mic. Candace certainly is as tough as her vocals, having sustained a broken nose and gash to her head at recent shows and finishing her sets bloodied and bruised before going to the hospital. This stamina is on full display in the video for the band’s song “There Is No I In F--- You!” (viewable at www.Trustkill.com). The video was filmed while they played to an over-capacity sold out crowd at Anaheim's Chain Reaction. During one song, an overzealous stage-diver jumped with Candace's mic accidentally hooked to his foot, resulting in a bloody blow to her head. Hardcore trooper that she is, Candace merely brushed off the injury, having already suffered two black eyes and a broken nose at previous shows.

The band composed of Mike Hasty (guitar), Chris Rawson (guitar), Aaron Ruby (bass) and new drummer Dustin Schoenhofer (formerly of Premonitions Of War) recently finished recording in Cleveland with producer Ben Schigel (Chimaira, ZAO, Ringworm). The resulting album With Devils Amongst Us All will be released August 22nd on Trustkill Records. Speaking on the new material Hasty comments “it’s definitely the most varied music we’ve ever written and it’s a lot more anthemic whereas our older material was more about aggression than composition.” Kucsulain explains “we’ve been on tour so much since the last album that we’ve been able to let our true personalities shine through on stage. When we were younger we would just express aggression and then go pass out. However playing live every night, you learn to pace yourself and as you get older you also want to express other things than rage so we’ve definitely developed our live show and our music.”

This diversity has worked itself into the band’s lyrics as well which in the past had been terribly bleak. “I’ve definitely developed a much healthier mindset. During the past albums I had gone through bad relationships and bad experiences, now I’m about being productive. I’m still upset about the world, but now I also want to talk about what we can do to make things better.” Walls Of Jericho formed with a different drummer in the late 90’s, the group released their debut full-length The Bound Feed The Gagged which was an important early release for fledgling indie, Trustkill (Metal Maniacs proclaimed the album more abrasive than a belt sander over broken, bloodcaked skin). The group toured the states non-stop alongside groups such as Earth Crisis and In Flames.

Between albums Hasty had become a well known producer recording The Black Dahlia Murder and Bloodline Calligraphy among other bands as well as opening a thriving recording studio in Detroit. Ruby had also emerged as a well known tattoo artist, becoming acclaimed for straight edge tattoos (Ruby also does the artwork for the new album). The band’s next release 2004’s All Hail The Dead had a fury of press coverage including Alt Press, Revolver, Headbangers Ball, Hit Parader and helped cement the band’s reputation as a must see live act. Walls Of Jericho has toured with Unearth, Sick Of It All, Mastodon, Fear Factory, Bleeding Through, Throwdown, Most Precious Blood, Atreyu, Bury Your Dead, and It Dies Today.